37 / 104
37
FEATURE
4K
4K
4K
DISCS
The Amazing
Spider-Man 2
Batman v
Superman: Dawn
of Justice
(20 July)
Chappie
Creed
Deadpool
The Expendables 3
(20 July)
The 5th Wave
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters II
Hancock
Kingsman: The
Secret Service
The Lego Movie
Life of Pi
Mad Max: Fury
Road
Man of Steel
(20 July)
The Martian
Maze Runner
Maze Runner:
The Scorch Trials
Pineapple
Express
The Revenant
Salt
San Andreas
The Smurfs 2
X-Men: Days of
Future Past
WHAT WILL I
NEED
?
An Ultra HD TV that supports HDR
4K is designed for big screens and UHDTVs start from 50-inches upwards. Size does matter if you want
to duplicate the cinema experience at home, which of course you do, so the bigger the panel, the better.
Older models prior to 2016 may not support HDR – 4K discs will still look great, but they’ll look even more
incredibly detailed and colourful with this function.
A 4K UHD Blu-ray Player
4K Ultra HD discs won’t play on a standard Blu-ray
player – the transfers require more disc space than a
BD. But Blu-ray discs and DVDs will play on a 4K UHD
Blu-ray player, and what’s more, they’ll look even better
when you take advantage of the upscaling function, with
only a slightly discernible difference in quality between
an upscaled Blu-ray and a 4K disc. But if you’re going the
4K route, you want the full experience with a dedicated
4K player that supports HDR. The Samsung UBD-K8500 4K HDR Blu-ray Player
is the only hardware option at the time of writing and has everything you need,
however, Panasonic will have a model available in September.
Additionally, Microsoft recently announced at E3 that the X Box One S (available
in August) will support 4K and HDR for video and gaming.
A 4K Ultra HD disc
(see below)
WHAT CAN I
WATCH
?
The good news is that major studios like Warner Bros., Roadshow, 20th Century Fox and Sony have all thrown
their support behind the 4K format, launching a range that showcases the enhanced resolution of UHD and
includes new release and catalogue titles. Upcoming blockbusters like
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
,
X-Men: Apocalypse
and
The Angry Birds Movie
will all be released in 4K. (For the full list of what’s currently
available from JB Hi-Fi, see right.) Just like the combo packs featuring both a Blu-ray and DVD edition of a film,
4K discs include a Blu-ray copy, so if you haven’t upgraded your hardware to UHD as yet, your software is future-
proofed for when you do.
We recommend
Deadpool
as the ultimate demo disc, simply because the film was shot, edited and mastered
in 4K and will give you the full “wow” factor of the format. That’s not to say movies that aren’t digitally shot using
4K are anything less than reference quality –
Mad Max: Fury Road
,
The Revenant
,
The Martian
and
Kingsman:
The Secret Service
should also be among your initial purchases – but
Deadpool
is the real deal in terms of a
preview of what’s likely to become the industry standard. It will be interesting to see how movies shot on film
fare when remastered in 4K, and an exciting prospect to see some classics and old favourites looking better than
ever. But until then, the significant boost in resolution provided by the 4K upscaling feature will have you revisiting
titles in your existing Blu-ray library just to see how amazing they can now look.
Star Wars
,
Blade Runner
,
Raiders
of the Lost Ark
,
Toy Story
and
Suspiria
in 4K UHD? Yes please!
WHAT’S
AVAILABLE